Postal workers rally at federal building in Syracuse against proposed cuts

View full sizeMike Greenlar / The Post StandardDemonstrating postal workers at the federal building in Syracuse react Tuesday afternoon to the honking horn of a passing U.S. postal truck on West Washington Street in downtown Syracuse. Protesting proposed service cuts and layoffs are Margie Walker-Vona (holding white sign), a postal clerk in Bayberry, and Harold Bookman (left, in hat), a letter carrier in Oswego.

Syracuse, NY -- About 120 postal workers and supporters rallied at the Federal Building in Syracuse Tuesday in what they termed an effort to save the U.S. Postal Service. The workers, marching in a light rain, carried signs and chanted, “We don’t want to get a bailout; we just want to get the mail out.”

Jim Lostumbo, president of the Central New York chapter of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told the workers that most people have been misled about the Postal Service’s financial status. “Despite what you’ve heard, the Postal Service is not broke,” he said.

He said the service’s woes were created by Congress, which passed a 2006 law that requires it to fund retiree health benefits 75 years in advance. That costs the service $5.5 billion a year. Without that requirement, he said, the service would have made a profit of $611 million over the last four years.

The workers also say the Postal Service has overpaid its federal pension obligations by $50 billion to $75 billion — a conclusion drawn in four separate studies.

Union leaders will meet with U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-Onondaga Hill, on Wednesday morning to try to convince her to support a bill that would recalculate the pension payments and transfer any overpayments to the retiree health plan.

If that bill passes, the unions say, the Postal Service will be in sound fiscal shape and will not need the Draconian measures Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has proposed, including ending Saturday delivery and reducing the force by some 220,000 workers.

The bill, HR 1351, has 216 co-sponsors, including area Reps. Richard Hanna, R-Barneveld, and Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh. It needs two more supporters to pass the House. Buerkle has not yet taken a position on it.